Across the conceptual divide? Chinese migration policies seen through historical and comparative lenses

This article analyses Chinese migration policies through historical and comparative lenses in an attempt to cross conceptual divides in existing literature on migration policies. The first part of the article offers an empirically grounded overview of developments in Chinese migration policies in the two decades after the regime changes of 1949 and 1978. A second analytical section brings together literature on the Global North, Global South, and Asian and Chinese migrations and migration policies. The article posits the following three main points. First, literature on the Global South is valuable for theorising Chinese migration policies in that it highlights emigration and development rather than immigration as in Hollifield’s ‘migration state’. However, in prioritising economic objectives, it fails to consider Chinese migration policies in relation to identity formation and nation-building under the influence of wars and decolonisation processes – what Adamson and Tsourapas have called ‘nationalising’ policies. Second, the article notes the significance of ethnic return migration in Chinese policies, which is overlooked in literature on the Global South, but examined in literature on Asian migrations. Finally, the article posits that the nexus between internal and external migration in a Chinese context offers critical insights for theorising migration policies.